Beaver & Krause

Beaver & Krause were a musical duo made up of Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause. Their 1966 album The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music was a pioneering work in the electronic music genre.

Beaver introduced Monkees singer-drummer Micky Dolenz to the Moog, which became a featured instrument on the fourth Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., and Beaver himself performed on one track, "Star Collector" in 1966.

In June 1967, Beaver and Krause set up a booth at the Monterey Pop Festival, demonstrating their newly purchased electronic synthesiser, one of the first constructed by Bob Moog.

Thanks to their demonstrations of the Moog at Monterey, Beaver and Krause also introduced the instrument to a number of other leading American pop acts including The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds, helping to create the vogue for the Moog that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Krause introduced the instrument to George Harrison during Harrison's 1967 visit to California, who then used it to produce his 1968 free-form solo "Electronic Music" album for Apple records' spinoff label 'Zapple'.

In 1968, Beaver and Krause released an album for Mercury Record's electronic spinoff label, Limelight records, "Ragnarok", then released a series of three albums for Warner Brothers Records, "In a Wild Sanctuary" (1970), "Gandharva" (1971), and "All Good Men" (1972), effectively creating both the electronica and New Age musical movements.

A variation of the end of their track "Spaced" from the "Wild Sanctuary" album became the dual gliding synthesizer soundtrack for the original THX Sound Logo in movie theaters.

Both Michael Bloomfield and Ronnie Montrose played guitar on the Beaver & Krause song "Saga Of The Blue Beaver".

The duo ended with Beaver's premature death in 1975, at age 50.

Krause released at least two more solo albums: "Citadels" in 1979 and "Gorillas in the Mix" in 1988, plus several movie soundtracks, and now specializes in recording naturalistic sounds, combining them with synthesizers.

He's recently recorded ambience soundtracks for Google.

External links

• Beaver & Krause at Allmusic

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